A Quiet Place: Day One Footage Reaction: The Horror Series Gets A Prequel With Lupita Nyong'o [CinemaCon 2023]

Paramount Pictures scored itself one of the most unexpectedly huge hits in recent memory with "A Quiet Place" in 2018. What were the odds that the guy who played Jim on "The Office" would go on to direct one of the best mainstream horror movies of the past several years? It's impressive stuff. Now, the studio is expanding the scope of the franchise following 2021's sequel with a prequel titled "A Quiet Place: Day One." Yes, we're going back to the beginning of this invasion and yes, Paramount decided to offer a first look at the film at CinemaCon, which is going on right now in Las Vegas.

/Film's own Ben Pearson is on hand at the event relaying all of the information for us to bring your way. In this case, he got a glimpse at the film, which is directed by Michael Sarnoski, best known for directing Nicolas Cage's "Pig," which ranks as one of the legendary actor's best films. So that instantly makes this prequel intriguing. It also stars Oscar-winner Lupita Nyong'o ("Us"), as well as Alex Wolff ("Hereditary"). So, what did it look like when these aliens with excellent hearing made their way to Earth to ruin life for the human race? Let's dig in.

Krasinski appeared by video to share plot details about "A Quiet Place: Day One" for the first time, revealing that not only will it serve as a spin-off prequel following a different character through the early stages of the apocalypse, but that it'll also take place "in the loudest city in the world, New York City." Filming on the horror movie just wrapped two weeks ago, but CinemaCon audiences got a first look at a pivotal scene from the movie, and Ben Pearson recounted what he saw. 

In the footage, Lupita Nyong'o's character sits on a city bus, the typical sounds of New York all around her. She's wearing headphones, and has a cat in her lap that we're now immediately worried won't make it to the end of this movie. The bus stops, and time briefly feels like it's slowing down as an explosion rips through the vehicle, tearing the back half of the bus clean off. "Our world went quiet," a title on the screen reads, confirming that we are, indeed, watching the end times in action.

Characters stare at a sky littered with falling meteors, then the action cuts back to Nyong'o, who wakes up covered in debris. A man who seems to have quickly caught on to the creatures' sound sensitivity gestures for her to shush, but not everyone else gets the memo. In an intense scene, our hero sees one man yanked out of frame by a monster, and when she crawls under a car to hide, another man grabs her foot and yells for help. Breathing heavily, Nyong'os' character tries to tell him to quiet down, but it's too late: he's alien food, too. With this first footage, "A Quiet Place: Day One" already looks like an even bigger spectacle than the first two films in the hit series.

"A Quiet Place: Day One" is currently set to hit theaters on March 8, 2024.